Behind Blue Eyes
by FreakOTU
Summary: Songfic. A fight between Ivy and Raphael turns out badly for both. Warning: Blood and Gore


Disclaimer: Credit goes to Namco for creating the Soul Calibur universe, and all its varied characters.  
  
Credit also goes to The Who for the song, Behind Blue Eyes  
  
The swords clashed together, locking their razored edges against each other as the wielders glared  
  
at each other from six inches of distance. Countess Valentine stared at her opponent, wondering if she  
  
would be forced to kill him. Staring at her, smiling tightly, was the rather handsome countenance of Raphael  
  
Sorel, a Frenchman renowned throughout Europe for his ability to fight with the rapier. Isabella blinked  
  
twice, letting her persona of Ivy take hold.  
  
No one knows what it's like  
  
To be the bad man  
  
To be the sad man  
  
Behind blue eyes  
  
Raphael looked at Countess Valentine, wondering if he could defeat her. However, when she  
  
blinked and her sky-blue eyes glimmered madly, he knew he was in for the fight for his life. The person  
  
known only as Ivy had taken the Countess, making her a bloodthirsty killing machine. Hey eyes had chilled  
  
to an icy glare, then she moved, wrapping her sword around his rapier and pulling.  
  
No one knows what it's like  
  
To be hated  
  
To be fated  
  
To telling only lies  
  
Ivy controlled her body, but Isabella had control of the mind. She knew what the survivors of the  
  
bloody rampages called her, what Ivy made her say, and just how horrified the innocents were from the  
  
reign of blood and darkness that followed her. Detached, she watched as the rapier's razor-sharp point  
  
pierced her arm just above the gold-plated steel that guarded her elbow, followed by a bright squirt of  
  
arterial blood. Ivy smiled and slammed the point of her sword home into the heavy buff jacket Raphael  
  
wore, knocking him flat, and cracking the metal plates that saved his life.  
  
But my dreams  
  
They aren't as empty  
  
As my conscience seems to be  
  
Raphael picked himself up off of the ground, wincing as a cracked rib made itself felt. The Countess  
  
had shifted stances, wrapping her sword around herself in a defensive posture. As he watched, she seemed  
  
to have an internal conflict, pausing long enough for him to close the distance and tackle her, knocking her  
  
sword away, and flattening her into the ground. Ivy looked up at Raphael, her arms pinned between his  
  
legs, and smiled, seemingly at peace with her current defeat.  
  
I have hours, only lonely  
  
My love is vengeance  
  
That's never free  
  
Isabella felt the weight of Raphael pressing the air out of her lungs, and realized that she was losing  
  
the fight. Ivy herself had already retreated, letting Isabella deal with the humiliation of the defeat. Instead,  
  
she felt something that had last appeared when her mother died. Tears formed and trickled down her  
  
cheeks as she realized the truth of what she had become. She had become a personification of what she  
  
sought to utterly destroy. Her vow to retain her humanity had merged with her vow of vengeance, becoming  
  
something chained inside her as Ivy.  
  
No one knows what it's like  
  
To feel these feelings  
  
Like I do  
  
And I blame you  
  
Raphael looked at the Countess, and suddenly felt a chill as he noticed her eyes. The Countess'  
  
eyes, normally a shade of blue rivalled only by the depths of the English Channel, had changed to a murky  
  
greyish shade, revealing the truth. Despite the stories of her being the deadliest woman in the continent, she  
  
was tortured by her decisions more than some of her victims were. Raphael tried to figure out why as the  
  
Countess seemed to avoid struggling too much, but he failed to figure it out.  
  
No one bites back as hard  
  
On their anger  
  
None of my pain and woe  
  
Can show through  
  
Isabella felt a tear trickle form one eye and forcefully closed them, blotting out the sight of her  
  
defeat looming over her. Visions of the Soul Edge continuing its swath of death, destruction, and eventually  
  
the summoning of its demonic manifestation Inferno filled her mind as she felt Raphael's slow breathing  
  
above her. She remembered four years ago at Ostrheinburg, when Inferno was summoned and  
  
subsequently defeated by the Soul Calibur and Kali-Yuga. She remembered her own part in assisting the  
  
summoning of the powerful demon, mainly through the control and murder of hundreds of innocents. Finally,  
  
she remembered what the ninja Taki told her. 'Your father was the original wielder of Soul Edge. His  
  
cursed blood runs in your veins.'  
  
But my dreams  
  
They aren't as empty  
  
As my conscience seems to be  
  
Raphael was totally unprepared for the Countess' motion, as she suddenly writhed backwards,   
  
planting her right knee into his crotch with enough force to knock him flat on his back five feet away.  
  
Through eyes half-blinded by tears, he watched as the Countess stood up, extending her hand for her  
  
sword, which leapt to her like a snake falling off of a tree branch. Then before he could stand, she extended  
  
her sword and let the razored tip slam into his right shoulder, pinning him to the marble floor.  
  
I have hours, only lonely  
  
My love is vengeance  
  
That's never free  
  
Isabella watched from a distance again as Ivy worked her magic over Raphael's now-forcibly  
  
prone body, lashing his chest and sides with the edges of her blade, opening bloody welts as quickly as a  
  
school of piranha could. She noticed with detached interest as the edge of one of the sword's segments laid  
  
open the right side of Raphael's chest down to the bone, exposing the neat rows of yellowish ribs and  
  
severed veins, blood quickly soaking through his jacket, and spreading into a puddle underneath him as he  
  
twitched and jumped under each impact.  
  
When my fist clenches, crack it open  
  
Before I use it and lose my cool  
  
When I smile, tell me some bad news  
  
Before I laugh and act like a fool  
  
Raphael reached over to the piece of sword embedded in his shoulder, and ignoring the fact that  
  
his life was dripping away in ever-increasing amounts, yanked the blade out of his arm, allowing him to  
  
stand up. He rolled to the side to avoid a particularly vicious slash from the Countess' snake sword,  
  
retrieving his blood-covered rapier from where it lay nearby. Viciously, he brought the weapon into play,  
  
knocking the dangerous tip of the snake sword away from him as he charged his opponent, ready to kill  
  
her outright.  
  
If I swallow anything evil  
  
Put your finger down my throat  
  
If I shiver, please give me a blanket  
  
Keep me warm, let me wear your coat  
  
Isabella noticed the mad fervor in Raphael's eyes, and tried to move, but Ivy was still gleefully  
  
slicing away at him until he was too close for her to bring the sword's whip-like attributes into play. Instead  
  
of playing around, Ivy simply brought the sword around, letting the segments close up into a cohesive edge,  
  
then thrust forwards, catching Raphael at the point of his breastbone just as he thrust with his own sword,  
  
hitting just to the left of Isabella's own breastbone. Both swords sunk in to the hilts, coating themselves in  
  
blood  
  
No one knows what it's like  
  
To be the bad man  
  
To be the sad man  
  
Behind blue eyes  
  
Looking at each other, the light dimming from their eyes, Isabella Valentine and Raphael Sorel tried  
  
to say something, but their breaths had left them too long ago. Their eyes locked, Ocean Blue meeting Sky  
  
Blue. Meeting and being cancelled out. Raphael collapsed facedown, his hand dropping from his rapier as  
  
his weight pulled Isabella's sword from her hand. Wavering, Isabella looked up at the windows high  
  
overhead, and, sighing, fell backwards as her life flooded through her lungs and ended her torment. 


End file.
